Two Tacoma residents and their companies must pay more than $7 million after a judge found them liable in a yearslong “probates for profit” scheme, in which they used loopholes in state law to swindle possessions and cash from the rightful heirs of about 200 dead strangers, mostly in Kitsap County.

In her Oct. 2 judgment, King County Superior Court Judge Suzanne Parisien also permanently barred John Elliott and Shanelle Sunde from acting as probate administrators in the future. They must turn over more than $4 million by Nov. 1 to the state Attorney General’s office, which will manage distributing the funds to victims, the office said in a statement Monday.

“People shouldn’t have to worry about loopholes in the law that leave them or their family members vulnerable to fraud and abuse — e

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